These Mistakes Could Be Stalling Your Social Media Growth in 2017

Following all of our social media advice, and still not seeing the positive results you want?

The truth is, there are common social media mistakes that could be sabotaging your own growth.

These five ~social media sins~ are a surefire way to lose existing followers and turn away new ones.

Grow faster on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by avoiding the following mistakes.

1. Grammar and spelling blunders

Social media is usually conversational and informal, but that’s no reason to make grammar and spelling errors. Do followers notice your flubs in captions? You bet.

If you don’t catch mistakes and quickly correct them, your caption becomes less relevant because now there’s an even stronger message: you lack attention to detail. And you don’t want a prospective client to think you’d do the same with a contract!

So read and reread your captions, more than once, every single time.

Look up words you’re not sure about. Run the caption through spell check before adding it to your post (we love Grammarly, a Chrome extension that corrects as you write).

Lastly, stay on top of these common grammar mistakes:

• They’re/their/there
• Your/you’re
• The difference between a colon and a semicolon
• Mixing metaphors (that just gets confusing)

2. Using hashtags incorrectly

No hashtags on Facebook. (It’s not really a thing there.)

Think about it: do you search or click hashtags on Facebook to discover content? Not really, right? You scroll through your newsfeed and click posts that you want to read or see more of. Maybe you use the search bar every now and then, too. But hashtags? Not a thing on Facebook.

The only exceptions are for a branded promotion that might require a hashtag to communicate the partnership, and for events, when you want to share the hashtag that will be used during the occasion – to track content shared by attendees.

Otherwise, save hashtags for Instagram and Twitter.

3. Making far-fetched connections to current events

It’s satisfying — and effective — when you’ve got content to share over social media that ties in perfectly with a trending news item that everyone’s talking about.

Like sharing your post on how to win bidding wars in Toronto when Torontonians can’t stop discussing a new report that says 75% of home sales in 2017 were made through bidding wars.

Boom. Perfect, authentic connection.

But those strong ties aren’t always there and yet so many marketers try to create them anyway, often with weak or completely ineffective results. You’ve probably noticed the misstep yourself, like when brands try to capitalize on a celebrity death, leaving a bad taste in your mouth.

Don’t leave your followers with that same bad taste. Only make a connection back to you, your brand, or your business when there’s truly a connection to be made.

4. Going off-brand

Consistent branding is key to creating and growing a successful social media presence. The kind of content you post, your voice and tone, and your look all define you, and they help your followers come to know you.

Going off-brand or experimenting with a new look in an attempt to be funny, controversial or attention-grabbing can sometimes be confusing. Publishing content or using a voice that doesn’t fit the social media brand you’ve created may turn your current followers totally off.

Trust the formula that works for you and keep striving to make it better. When you do want to experiment, make sure it’s for the right reasons, such as trying out a new visual identity or offering a new type of content that’s proven to receive high engagement (hello, video!).

5. Immediately inviting new connections to “Like” your page

“Organic” is a favourite word of social media darlings. Anything that happens “organically” or at least appears to happen organically also seems authentic. And social media users love authenticity.

But inviting your brand new Facebook friends to “Like” your biz page immediately after the friend request has been approved is far from authentic.

Doing so makes it look like your only reason for connecting was to boost your page numbers. Maybe that was the reason, but acting in this manner can set off people’s spam radars, making them turned off to do business with you.

Wait until you’ve had at least a handful of interactions on Facebook (comments, likes, posts, etcetera) on your personal or business page before you ask them to become a fan and follower.

Better yet, send them a personalized message chock-full of valuable information on their unique situation.

Now that will make you stand out from the crowd – in a very good way.